Garlic Rosemary Chicken Thighs will create a mouth watering aroma around your kitchen. They are tender and full of so much flavor! Simply brown the chicken thighs, then sauté mushrooms and garlic to create an incredible aroma and taste! Use white wine and chicken stock along with minced fresh rosemary for mouthwatering sauce!
Oven Baked Rosemary Chicken Thighs recipe in a nutshell
- First, chicken thighs are generously seasoned with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning and seared on skin side first to get that nice color on the skin.
- Once browned, chicken is removed from the pan and mushrooms and garlic are sautéed next.
- After that, rosemary sauce is prepared in the same pan using wine, chicken stock and chopped rosemary leaves.
- Finally, the chicken is added back to the pan with rosemary sauce and mushrooms and the dish is transferred to the oven to bake for 35 minutes at 400 F. When time is up, oven baked rosemary chicken thighs are done!
Equipment needed to make Oven Roasted Rosemary Chicken Thighs
To make baked chicken thighs you will need is a large oven proof pan, such as this 10.25 inch Dual Handle Lodge Skillet that amazingly fit all my 6 chicken thighs:
You will also need olive oil, some rosemary sprigs, garlic, mushrooms and white wine.
How to use rosemary in this oven baked chicken thighs recipe
Rosemary has a strong scent when you cook with it and I find that it’s this quality that complements the chicken so well.
We are using finely minced rosemary for the sauce itself and then sprigs of rosemary that are placed on top of the baked chicken thighs (and on the bottom as well if so desiredJ) to create even more flavor when chicken is roasted in the oven!
Just make sure to remove these whole sprigs before serving and eating these baked chicken thighs, since they will be too tough to eat and are there only for flavor. However, minced rosemary inside the sauce will taste wonderful!
Mushrooms and garlic are sautéed together in butter right before sauce ingredients are added. I used Baby Bella mushrooms here:
Sauce is prepared by adding white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc Savingon Blanc), chicken stock and minced rosemary to the pan with mushrooms. The sauce is thickened by whisking in 1 tablespoon of flour.
Finally, chicken thighs are returned to the pan with sauce and mushrooms. For the final touch, whole rosemary sprigs are placed on top of the chicken (these sprigs will need to be removed once chicken is done – they will be too bitter to eat).
There is no need to use a thermometer to check the chicken for readiness in this recipe – I’ve tested this recipe many times and 35 minutes at 400 F in the oven proves to be the optimal time for perfectly cooked juicy chicken thighs: not even slightly overcooked or undercooked.
What a great way to turn a boring chicken in your fridge into a fancy week night dinner!
If you enjoy chicken recipes, I have several others that are easy to prepare and so delicious:
Chicken and Spinach in Creamy Paprika Sauce
Parmesan Crusted Chicken
Chicken Thighs and Potatoes in Creamy Dijon Mustard Sauce
Garlic Rosemary Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
Chicken Thighs:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1.5 lb. chicken thighs, skin-on bone-in, about 5-6 pieces
- Salt and pepper
- Italian Seasoning
For the wine sauce/gravy:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
- ½ cup sodium free chicken broth, adjust salt if not sodium free
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons rosemary fresh leaves minced, + rosemary sprigs for flavor
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- CHICKEN THIGHS: Season chicken thighs with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Once the skillet is hot, place chicken thighs in the skillet skin down and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown on both sides, turning once between cooking, about 8-10 minutes total. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Chicken will be golden brown but not cooked through.
- MUSHROOMS and GARLIC: Add butter and sliced mushrooms to the pan and sauté for 3-4 minutes until cooked. Add minced garlic and cook for additional 1-2 minutes.
- MAKING SAUCE/GRAVY: Reduce heat to medium and add 1 more tablespoon butter. Once melted, move mushrooms to one side and whisk in 1 tablespoon flour into the melted butter. Now add wine slowly to the hot pan, increasing heat from medium-high to high for a few minutes. Add the chicken stock and minced rosemary and let everything cook for about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper and taste the sauce. If needed, add more salt at this point.
- ADDING CHICKEN BACK: Return chicken thighs back to the pan and add fresh rosemary sprigs (not minced, but sprigs) on top of the chicken for flavor. Place the skillet in the oven and bake for 35 minutes at 400 degrees.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Thank you for the recipe! Had some chicken thighs and fresh rosemary to use up and this worked great. I would use less butter next time, though. I also used skinless boneless chicken thighs and added potatoes.
I think potatoes are a good idea here and you are welcome!
I made this for my mom yesterday and she was so proud. Great recipe!
I love that she was proud of you!
How much dried Rosemary should I use in place of fresh?
1 teaspoon of dried rosemary.
After browning the chicken in oil, there’s a lot of fat in the pan. It seemed to me that adding butter before mushrooms and then more butter before flour was overkill. But it worked out OK. Best to check chicken in the oven for temperature. At 30 min, the temperature of the chicken was up to 200F, but didn’t taste overcooked. The dish looked good when finished and tasted better. I wonder what other herbs could be substituted for the rosemary?
Mushrooms tend to absorb lots of that oil. Instead of rosemary I often use thyme. It is not as aromatic as rosemary, but it still has a pronounced flavor.
Can chicken breast be used instead of the thighs or maybe boneless thighs would that work?
Yes, absolutely! I would reduce cooking time to 25 minutes and reduce oven temperature to 375.
My very picky stepson loves this recipe and I make it for him all the time. It’s delicious and I’ve received so many compliments on this along with roasted potatoes and salad.
That’s a great compliment for me as well! Thank you for making it for your stepson!
This is delicious. I actually didn’t have mushrooms so used grape tomatoes but followed everything else. Served it over jasmine rice and with homemade biscuits. So so good. I wish I could show you a photo!
Next time I will be making the gravy after the chicken is done roasting. Roasting the chicken in the gravy doesn’t add anything to the dish, and the rendered fat form the thighs just ruins the texture of it. There was so much fat in the gravy after baking, and could not be emulsified into the gravy. In my opinion, it makes more sense to roast the chicken, then drain off some drippings and use the rest to make the gravy.
Both my husband and I loved it .This is the second time I made it delicious.😋
The ingredients call for red pinions, but I didn’t see them in the directions. I sauté them with the onions.
Recipe was Delicious!